Also, did you notice how, in the headline of the blog, I said, “WATCH her transform right before your EYES”?

But, if I only changed her voice, why didn’t I say, “LISTEN to her transform right before your EARS”?

The answer speaks to a hidden truth about the power of our voices that, until recently, only the most influential and accomplished leaders had uncovered…

It’s this:

HOW you sound is WHO people perceive you to be.

That means…

That perception change impacts you in two ways.

First, when you change your voice, you change the way people perceive you internally.

As in, what’s your personality, IQ and expertise? What culture most influenced you? How confident are you?

This applies to how other people perceive your emotions, as well. Is she angry at me? Is he sad about what just happened?

In fact, you’re likely to be stunned at how incredibly accurate your voice can be when it comes to expressing how you’re feeling. And how easily it can give away your emotional state, if you’re not cognizant of the sounds your voice is making. (You can read the science behind these findings, here.)

Now, here’s the second perception change:

How you sound influences how people see you externally!

As in, how old are you? How attractive are you? Are you strong or weak?

By simply knowing these facts, you’re ahead of the crowd because most people don’t even know they’re being judged emotionally and physically when they talk.

Which is shocking, because…

judging someone by the sounds their voice makes is actually part of our evolutionary hardwiring.

In the wild, sounds communicate an animal’s intentions. Are they trying to eat you, mate with you, or join your tribe?

Sound is also how we judge if another animal is a threat to us. Since the size of the vocal cords (or vocal tract, depending on the animal) is proportional to the potential pitch of an animal’s voice, if the sound coming from the bushes is high-pitched, it probably belongs to a small animal. No threat there. But if the roar is low-pitched, it’s probably an animal with a very large body. RUN AWAY!

By the way, if you think we’ve lost this evolutionary advantage over time, think again. Recent scientific research has shown that women can judge with incredibly high accuracy the upper body strength of a man…by listening to nothing more than an audio recording of his voice!

Our minds subconsciously pick up on these attraction and physical body cues when we listen to someone else’s voice, without us even having to pay specific attention.

Now, back to the title of this blog.

I didn’t say, “listen” to the reality TV show guest’s vocal transformation, I said “watch.”

…Because when I changed her voice, I didn’t just change how this woman sounds when she talks.

I changed the way the world sees her—inside and out.

And there’s more good news here when you can see the feedback loop that starts every time we open our mouths:

In this stage of the feedback loop, they’ve formed an initial impression of us, which we could call a preliminary perception.

3. Listeners react to us based on how they perceive us.

For example, if they judged us to be informed, experienced, and confident, they’re more likely to respect us or yield to us. If they detect that we’re insecure, uncertain, or bluffing, they might do the opposite, and on and on.

4. Listeners’ responses inform how we perceive ourselves.

For example, are we really in control? Are we as capable as we thought?And so on.

5. How we perceive ourselves (which we determined in Stage 4) impacts how we feel, which impacts the sound of our voice when we go to say something else.

…which starts the feedback loop again, back at Stage One.

The conversations we hold, day in and day out, are a repeat of that feedback loop.

So, how do we
make the Voice and Perception Feedback Loop to work in our favor?

At Stage One. By changing how we sound.

That’s exactly what we did for the young woman who I got to coach on “The Doctors” show. By transforming her voice from masculine to feminine, not only does the world now see her as the lady she wants to be, but the world also treats her that way. As a result, she feels more ladylike, confident, and aligned in every area of her life.

If she wants to feel more joyful, youthful, beautiful—you name it—her voice and physicality will fall in line, forming the role she plays on the
world’s stage.

Let’s recap the big take-away here:

If you want to change how you feel about yourself and the way the world sees you, you don’t have to change your body or career or wardrobe.

Instead, just start with your voice. Because a voice improvement is a life improvement.